The Region
1. Introduction
The Hudson James Bay Lowlands (HJBL) is a large region (~369,000 km2) endowed with an ecologically rich and diverse mosaic of ecosystems (i.e., wetlands, permafrost, peatlands, rivers, lakes, etc.), and it is home to First Nations communities. The HJBL has low human impact and high ecological integrity, providing ecosystem services of local, national and global importance (e.g., climate stability, traditional wildfoods). However, the region is facing impacts not only from indirect and direct drivers such as climate and land use change, but also social, cultural, economic, and political pressures acting at different spatial and temporal scales.
Hudson-James Bay lowlands (HJBL) is located in the Hudson Bay Plains ecozone in the northeastern area of Canada. The HJBL covers about 320,000 km2 on the southern shores of Hudson Bay and James Bay, surrounded by the Canadian Shield. It falls largely in Ontario and Manitoba, with a small extension into Quebec. The Ecological Framework of Canada identifies three main ecoregions within the ecozone: the Coastal Hudson Bay Lowlands, the Hudson Bay Lowland, and the James Bay Lowlands.